2.3. The
Living Present Questioner: As I can see, there is nothing wrong with my
body nor with my real being. Both are not of my making and need not be
improved upon. What has gone wrong is the ‘inner body’, call it mind,
consciousness,antahkarana, whatever the name. Nisargadatta: What do you
consider to be wrong with your mind? Questioner: It is restless, greedy
of the pleasant and afraid of the unpleasant. Nisargadatta: What is
wrong with its seeking the pleasant and shirking the unpleasant? Between
the banks of pain and pleasure the river of life flows. It is only when
the mind refuses to flow with life, and gets stuck at the banks, that it
becomes a problem. By flowing with life I mean acceptance -- letting
come what comes and go what goes. Desire not, fear not, observe the
actual, as and when it happens, for you are not what happens, you are to
whom it happens. Ultimately even the observer you are not. You are the
ultimate potentiality of which the all-embracing consciousness is the
manifestation and expression. Questioner: Yet, between the body and the
self there lies a cloud of thoughts and feelings, which neither server
the body nor the self. These thoughts and feelings are flimsy, transient
and meaningless, mere mental dust that blinds and chokes, yet they are
there, obscuring and destroying. Nisargadatta: Surely, the memory of an
event cannot pass for the event itself. Nor can the anticipation. There
is something exceptional, unique, about the present event, which the
previous, or the coming do not have. There is a livingness about it, an
actuality; it stands out as if illuminated. There is the ‘stamp of
reality’ on the actual, which the past and the future do not have.
Questioner: What gives the present that 'stamp of reality’?
Nisargadatta: There is nothing peculiar in the present event to make it
different from the past and future. For a moment the past was actual and
the future will become so. What makes the present so different?
Obviously, my presence. I am real for I am always now, in the present,
and what is with me now shares in my reality. The past is in memory, the
future -- in imagination. There is nothing in the present event itself
that makes it stand out as real. It may be some simple, periodical
occurrence, like the striking of the clock. In spite of our knowing that
the successive strokes are identical, the present stroke is quite
different from the previous one and the next -- as remembered, or
expected. A thing focussed in the now is with me, for I am ever present;
it is my own reality that I impart to the present event. Questioner: But
we deal with things remembered as if they were real. Nisargadatta: We
consider memories, only when they come into the present The forgotten is
not counted until one is reminded -- which implies, bringing into the
now. Questioner: Yes, I can see there is in the now some unknown factor
that gives momentary reality to the transient actuality. Nisargadatta:
You need not say it is unknown, for you see it in constant operation.
Since you were born, has it ever changed? Things and thoughts have been
changing all the time. But the feeling that what is now is real has
never changed, even in dream. Questioner: In deep sleep there is no
experience of the present reality. Nisargadatta: The blankness of deep
sleep is due entirely to the lack of specific memories. But a general
memory of well-being is there. There is a difference in feeling when we
say ‘I was deeply asleep’ from ‘I was absent’. Questioner: We shall
repeat the question we began with: between life’s source and life’s
expression (which is the body), there is the mind and its ever-changeful
states. The stream of mental states is endless, meaningless and painful.
Pain is the constant factor. What we call pleasure is but a gap, an
interval between two painful states. Desire and fear are the weft and
warp of living, and both are made of pain. Our question is: can there be
a happy mind? Nisargadatta: Desire is the memory of pleasure and fear is
the memory of pain. Both make the mind restless. Moments of pleasure are
merely gaps in the stream of pain. How can the mind be happy?
Questioner: That is true when we desire pleasure or expect pain. But
there are moments of unexpected, unanticipated joy. Pure joy,
uncontaminated by desire -- unsought, undeserved, God-given.
Nisargadatta: Still, joy is joy only against a background of pain.
Questioner: Is pain a cosmic fact, or purely mental? Nisargadatta:: The
universe is complete and where there is completeness, where nothing
lacks, what can give pain? Questioner: The Universe may be complete as a
whole, but incomplete in details. Nisargadatta:: A part of the whole
seen in relation to the whole is also complete. Only when seen in
isolation it becomes deficient and thus a seat of pain. What makes for
isolation? Questioner: Limitations of the mind, of course. The mind
cannot see the whole for the part. Nisargadatta:: Good enough. The mind,
by its very nature, divides and opposes. Can there be some other mind,
which unites and harmonises, which sees the whole in the part and the
part as totally related to the whole? Questioner: The other mind --
where to look for it? Nisargadatta:: In the going beyond the limiting,
dividing and opposing mind. In ending the mental process as we know it.
When this comes to an end, that mind is born. Questioner: In that mind,
the problem of joy and sorrow exist no longer? Nisargadatta: Not as we
know them, as desirable or repugnant. It becomes rather a question of
love seeking expression and meeting with obstacles. The inclusive mind
is love in action, battling against circumstances, initially frustrated,
ultimately victorious. Questioner: Between the spirit and the body, is
it love that provides the bridge? Nisargadatta: What else? Mind creates
the abyss, the heart crosses it.

I
AM THAT

Dialogues
of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

3.
The Living Present

Questioner:

As I can see, there is nothing wrong with my body nor with my real
being. Both are not

of
my making and need not be improved upon. What has gone wrong is the
‘inner body’, call it

mind,
consciousness,antahkarana, whatever the name.

Nisargadatta:

What do you consider to be wrong with your mind?

Questioner:

It is restless, greedy of the pleasant and afraid of the unpleasant.

Nisargadatta:

What is wrong with its seeking the pleasant and shirking the
unpleasant? Between the banks of

pain
and pleasure the river of life flows. It is only when the mind refuses
to flow with life, and gets

stuck
at the banks, that it becomes a problem. By flowing with life I mean
acceptance -- letting come

what
comes and go what goes. Desire not, fear not, observe the actual, as
and when it happens, for

you
are not what happens, you are to whom it happens. Ultimately even the
observer you are not.

You
are the ultimate potentiality of which the all-embracing consciousness
is the manifestation and

expression.

Questioner:

Yet, between the body and the self there lies a cloud of thoughts and
feelings, which neither

serves
the body nor the self. These thoughts and feelings are flimsy,
transient and meaningless,

mere
mental dust that blinds and chokes, yet they are there, obscuring and
destroying.

Nisargadatta:

Surely, the memory of an event cannot pass for the event itself. Nor
can the anticipation. There

is
something exceptional, unique, about the present event, which the
previous, or the coming do not

have.
There is a livingness about it, an actuality; it stands out as if
illuminated. There is the ‘stamp

of
reality’ on the actual, which the past and the future do not have.

Questioner:

What gives the present that 'stamp of reality’?

Nisargadatta:

There is nothing peculiar in the present event to make it different
from the past and future. For a

moment
the past was actual and the future will become so. What makes the
present so different?

Obviously,
my presence. I am real for I am always now, in the present, and what
is with me now

shares
in my reality. The past is in memory, the future -- in imagination.
There is nothing in the

present
event itself that makes it stand out as real. It may be some simple,
periodical occurrence,

like
the striking of the clock. In spite of our knowing that the successive
strokes are identical, the

present
stroke is quite different from the previous one and the next -- as
remembered, or expected.

A
thing focussed in the now is with me, for I am ever present; it is my
own reality that I impart to the

present
event.

Questioner:

But we deal with things remembered as if they were real.

Nisargadatta:

We consider memories, only when they come into the present The
forgotten is not counted until

one
is reminded -- which implies, bringing into the now.

Questioner:

Yes, I can see there is in the now some unknown factor that gives
momentary reality to the

transient
actuality.

Nisargadatta:

You need not say it is unknown, for you see it in constant operation.
Since you were born, has it

ever
changed? Things and thoughts have been changing all the time. But the
feeling that what is

now
is real has never changed, even in dream.

Questioner:

In deep sleep there is no experience of the present reality.

Nisargadatta:

The blankness of deep sleep is due entirely to the lack of specific
memories. But a general

memory
of well-being is there. There is a difference in feeling when we say
‘I was deeply asleep’

from
‘I was absent’.

Questioner:

We shall repeat the question we began with: between life’s source and
life’s expression (which

is
the body), there is the mind and its ever-changeful states. The stream
of mental states is endless,

meaningless
and painful. Pain is the constant factor. What we call pleasure is but
a gap, an interval

between
two painful states. Desire and fear are the weft and warp of living,
and both are made of

pain.
Our question is: can there be a happy mind?

Nisargadatta:

Desire is the memory of pleasure and fear is the memory of pain. Both
make the mind restless.

Moments
of pleasure are merely gaps in the stream of pain. How can the mind be
happy?

Questioner:

That is true when we desire pleasure or expect pain. But there are
moments of unexpected,